Will they hire me?

At the end of the day, what you achieve during your nurse training is what counts. Work hard and get a good result and they will have no reason to turn you away. I had to do 2 presentations during my training, 1 practical and 1 academic, as part of my assignments, I thought I was c**p at both of them, but I passed them.

So nose to the grindstone and go for it, I wish you the best of luck

Ahh, I too have had presentations that I would rather forget! Don't be too hard on yourself. Remember that we are always are own worst critics! You probably did better than you give yourself credit for.:icon_hug:

Thanks for the response. You guys are so supportive. I love this forum!!

A nurse's license opens many doors. This is only partly because a lot of places are desperate for nurses. Another part is that passing nursing school says a lot about you. It's no easy feat, and the people who hire nurses are well aware of that. It can reasonably be assumed that anyone who graduates and passes NCLEX is reasonably bright and reasonably hard-working. A rare few may slip through that make you wonder--but even they will probably get hired, somewhere...

Don't fret over your presentation. My NM gets as nervous doing job interviews as if she were the one applying for the job. My Director manages to make an inadvertant double entendre at nearly every staff meeting. In many ways, social skills are an important part of nursing, but being cool has very little to do with it. Even if you bungled your presentation as badly as you think (unlikely, but possible) the difference between a demonstration and actual practice is just enormous. A much more telling question would be how you handled the debaucle--did you lose your temper? freak out? quit?

An appalling lot of nursing comes down to being able to stay calm (at least outwardly) and keep plugging even when everything is going to crap around you. There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but it's entirely possible that the nurses who observed you were impressed that you managed to get through it with reasonable aplomb.

Nurse Mike-have not read the entire forum-just happen to catch your last paragraph about staying calm. I worked for a short time in a cardiac step down unit and when things went bad I stayed calm and collected and took the necessary trained steps-everyone else was spazing out-my preceptor actually asked me if I was "ignorant of the seriousness of the situation" because I do not over react when there is code or pending code...:trout:

Nurse Mike-have not read the entire forum-just happen to catch your last paragraph about staying calm. I worked for a short time in a cardiac step down unit and when things went bad I stayed calm and collected and took the necessary trained steps-everyone else was spazing out-my preceptor actually asked me if I was "ignorant of the seriousness of the situation" because I do not over react when there is code or pending code...:trout:

And you say you only worked there a short time?

Excuse me, but I need to take an aspirin, go for a bike ride, and start a low-fat diet. Feeling a real sense of urgency about that, suddenly...

I was there six months as an internship for critical care training and after seeing numerous short cuts, charting ahead of time, signing off meds before given, things like central line dsg chgs consisting of going in taking off the tegaderm and putting on a new one without cleaning or changing caps because they were in a hurry. etc. I did not accept the job after the internship was completed.

fathernurse, I do over 100 presentations a year. Trust me, no one will remember. I just got a call to speak at a hospital where I did the same presentation 3 years ago. I reminded them I'd been there recently and they said "oh we have all new staff now!".

Public speaking can be a bear if it isn't for you. Few nursing jobs require it. Chalk this up to experience and let it be dust under your feet. Good luck in nursing!

Fathernurse and Quickbeam: What jobs do you both have that require public speaking as part of your nursing career?

What jobs do you both have that require public speaking as part of your nursing career?

I'm a community health nurse and I oversee medical issues as they relate to driving for my state. I do lectures at hospitals, community centers, conferences (you name it) on dementia and driving, diabetes and driving, Parkinson's and driving.....

It's a niche job. I'm the only one who does it in my state. I also do case management, policy oversight and advise the legislature.

Interesting. Thanks for the quick response! :)